The Truth about the Beretta Dolphin!
The Beretta Dolphin is a much talked about gun, with many stating, as fact, that it was a select fire pistol, produced secretly for the US Navy Seals.
I have (before now) NEVER seen a photo of a REAL Dolphin (I am now 100% convinced that the one on websites with the shiny outer barrel is the Dong San Springer) and now the reason why becomes clear...
John Dommers wrote to me from La Jolla, California.
Hopefully I can shed some light on the "Dolphin" model pistol and the confusion about this make believe Beretta model.
There was only a slide that was called the Phrobis Navy slide. There was never a pistol called the Beretta Dolphin.
I know the designer of the Phrobis Navy slide, Charles "Mickey" Finn, and frequently see and speak with him.
Mickey Finn designed the Phrobis M9 Multi Purpose Bayonet System, the Buckmaster knife, The Buck 186 Titanium knife and many products that were used by special operation military teams in the 1980's.
Mickey Finn designed the Phrobis Navy Slide to correct the weakness in the original Beretta 92F pistol because the original slides often broke and hit the operators in their faces. Phrobis Navy slides were made and tested, but production never took place
because of "politics" in the military and at Beretta. There were a handful of slides that went to the Navy for testing. like all Phrobis products, the slides were very durable and performed extremely well.
None were ever sold to the public, as far as I know.
I have seen a cheap copy of the slide that shows poor workmanship. Buyers should be aware that copies have been made.
The lettering on the side of the copies is not as good as on the air soft pistol "dolphin" models. The machining on the inside of the slide copies is rough.
The Phrobis company logo was in the shape of a dolphin, but there was never a "dolphin" model Beretta 92.
Mickey Finn still holds the copyright to the Phrobis dolphin logo and never licensed its use to any air soft pistol manufacturer.
The logo is not being legally used
I am attaching some photos that I have not released up until now.
The photo of the Phrobis Navy slide shows an authentic slide - The pistol functions flawlessly.
Above : Slide was to have been sold by 'Dolphin Products'.
Above : As explained above, the slide was a response to breaking 92 slides in testing.
Above : An Olive Drab 92 fitted with a Phrobis slide - Note markings.
Above : Springer replicates styling of slide quite well!
Above : Details of why slide was better than standard.
Above : The other side of the real thing.
...and what's Mickey up to now..?
Former Special Forces weapons expert Charles A. "Mickey" Finn trades camouflage for the green with his newest creation, the T-Bar? Putter. This CNC-milled putter has a patent-pending T-Bar weighting system that makes it the most balanced and consistent putter in golf today.
For thirty years Finn designed and produced state-of-the-art weapons systems for the U.S. military. His expertise includes knives, sniper rifles, riflescopes, silencers, and bayonets. Finn worked directly with top military brass and 3-letter agencies. When U.S. forces retrieved the hostages from Iran, invaded Grenada, and captured Manuel Noriega in Panama, they relied on Mickey Finn for state-of-the art, reliable weapons systems. In the industry he is referred to a "Q", after the special weapons supplier Q in the James Bond movies.
Access to Finn's expertise was limited to top military and government agencies on a need-to-know basis. After extensive research into black military operations, author Tom Clancy used Finn's name to add an extra measure of realism to The Cardinal of the Kremlin (page 466). Retiring from the defense industry, Finn set out into the business world creating an award-winning line of military and hunting knives. In 1987 Arthur Young Entrepreneurial Services honored Mickey Finn for his ingenuity, hard work, and innovation.
Finn won the U.S. Army contract to design and build the M-9 bayonet for the M-16 rifle. Out of 49 companies that bid on the contract, Finn won because his bayonet was the only one tested that had zero percent test failure -No other company was even close. (See article in below Blade Magazine)
"Everything I design is the best, regardless of cost. In the weapons industry, if what you make has defects it costs lives. I couldn't live with that type of guilt," says Finn.
Finn entered the golf industry three years ago when long-time friend Eddie Maldonado complained that his putting was terrible. Finn, who has never golfed a day in his life, put his mind to work after watching Maldonado putt. "I noticed two things when I watched Eddie and other people putt. Their club faces were not squaring at impact, and the balls were not rolling top-to-bottom. Instead they were scooting off these soft material (insert) putters."
From those observations Finn designed the T-Bar? Putter with a patent-pending T-Bar? weighting system that squares the club at impact, allowing every golfer to hit the ball straight even if he hits the ball on the toe, center, or heel. The T-Bar? initiates a pendulum-like putting stroke and gets the ball rolling top-to-bottom better than any putter on the market.
When asked how someone who has never golfed a day in his life could have designed the perfect putter Finn responded, "It's quite simple actually. It's a matter of proper utilization of mechanics, dynamics, and harmonics applied in conjunction with sound engineering. This is the formula that provides a superior product. That's what I do." Special Ops Hits Target with new Golf Putter
